Merry Christmas!  It’s almost here!  This is THE week of serious preparation.  I’m trying my hardest to enjoy the week and the anticipation and the fun activities I’ve planned with the boys.  I know you all can identify with me that the holiday season sure brings with it a lot of stress!  I’ve enjoyed this year more than some years – it might have to do with the fact that my kids are getting a little older and it’s a little easier to do fun things with them.

We made these cute Christmas tree pictures:

We made thumbprint ornaments with friends:

  

We decorated gingerbread houses with my sister, cousins and friends:

We visited the retirement community where Mr. Chaos’ grandma and great aunt live.  We passed out homemade cards to the residents we met in the halls and sang to Grandma and Aunt Anna.  It was a sweet morning.

We’ve done some other fun things, but I can’t share those with you yet because they are gifts 🙂

Today we made these fun melted snowman cookies.  I get tired of decorating sugar cookies, they are a lot of work and mess, and there are a lot of other cookies out there that I prefer to eat.  I saw these on Pinterest and thought they were perfect.  I actually used my own cookie recipe instead of the one that was listed, but really you could use any cookie that you like, that’s the nice thing about these.  I made Rich Peanut Butter Cookies, a recipe shared with me by a long-time family friend, Evie Peckman – who is known far and wide for her delicious baked goods and cooking!  She sent these to our family once and they immediately became my favorite peanut butter cookie.  I am not a huge fan of peanut butter cookies, I think they are dry and crumbly.  These cookies are not, they are soft and full of peanut butter chips and really delicious.  Give them a try if you are looking for a better peanut butter cookie recipe. Be sure not to over bake them, take them out when they are barely done.  If you like a more firm cookie, leave them in until they are slightly brown.  For making the snowman I would flatten them slightly with your hand before you put them into the oven.  I plan to freeze mine now that they are decorated, carefully between wax paper, until our festivities this weekend.

I actually made the cookies last weekend and threw them in the freezer.  I pulled them out and let them thaw this morning, thus making this project WAY easier than it would’ve been if I had the kids help with baking the cookies.

  

For the frosting (the snow) I just used powdered sugar and milk mixed together until I got the right consistency.  You could also use melted vanilla-flavored candy coating.  I tried very hard not to care if the snowmen didn’t look like snowmen…but I sorta failed – I went back and fixed some noses and eyes after the kids were done 😉

These cookies are also very appropriate to make after the holidays (maybe when you have more time?!), these can totally be “winter” cookies instead of “Christmas” cookies. Score.

  

I hope this Christmas season has been a special one for you and your family.  Even before the tragedy last Friday in Connecticut, I had been trying to focus on family and Jesus’ birthday and my kids this season, but now more than ever I know we are all thankful for the many blessings we have.

Warm wishes to you and your family!

Rich Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup peanut butter chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Beat brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg with mixer until creamy. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Stir in peanut butter chips.

Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.  (For the snowman cookies, slightly flatten with your hands).  Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 9-10 minutes or until slightly (slightly!) brown.  Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet and then move to cooling rack.

To make melted snowmen:

powdered sugar

milk

peanut butter cups

sprinkles, shaped as balls and oblong sprinkles

Cool cookies completely before decorating.  Mix powdered sugar and a tiny bit of milk together until desired consistency.  You want it thicker than a glaze, but still spreadable.  If it’s too thin it will slide off the cookies or look thin and not like snow.

Spread icing on cookies, but don’t make it perfect, let it drip down the sides unevenly (like melted snow!). Cut peanut butter cups in half from the top and place one half on the cookie to look like a hat. Then place two sprinkles, shaped like balls, as the eyes and an orange, oblong sprinkle as the nose.  Let sit until the the icing is set and hardens.